system of crédit foncier, so far from profiting by the advantages and experience to be derived from other countries, appears to have resorted to a most objectionable course. It will be seen, by the following extract from Mr. Tooke's History of Prices,' above referred to, how largely gambling is, in France, mixed up with the simple business of borrowing. As the history of the institution is very interesting, and ought to act as a warning to those who have not as yet established any plan of landed credit, we will give Mr. Tooke's account of it in his own words :—

'On the 28th of February, 1852, an Imperial decree authorised the formation of sociétés de crédit foncier, and effected certain modifications of the law with the view of assisting the operations of these societies. On the 28th of March, 1852, a banque foncière de Paris was established, and in the course of 1852 several further decrees were issued extending or modifying the institution. On the 10th of December, 1852, the title was changed to crédit foncier de France, and at length, on the 6th July, 1854, the institution was placed on a footing analogous to that of the Bank of France.

"The original concession of March 1852 was to a joint stock company, at the head of which was M. Wolowski, the eminent person who has contributed in the largest degree to the sound exposition, in France, of the resources of the crédit foncier system. But the decree of July 1854 superseded M. Wolowski, and placed the management of the institution in the hands of a governor and two sub-governors named by the Emperor.

The capital of the society is fixed at 2,400,000l., to be raised in shares of 201. each, one half of which (10.) is paid up; providing a paid-up capital of 1,200,000l.

The statutes described the objects of the society to be,—

"1. De prêter sur hypothèque aux propriétaires d'immeubles situés dans tous les départements des sommes remboursables par les emprunteurs au moyen d'annuités comprenant les intérêts, l'amortissement, ainsi que les frais d'administration.

"2. D'appliquer avec l'autorisation du gouvernement tout autre système ayant pour objêt de faciliter les prêts sur immeubles et la libération du débiteur.

"3. De créer pour une valeur égale à celle des engagements hypothécaires souscrits à son profit, des obligations produisant un intérêt annuel par la voie du tirage au sort, avec ou sans lots et primes et portant le titre d'obligations Foncières.

"4. De recevoir en prêt, sans intérêt, les sommes destinées à être converties en obligations Foncières."

The term of concession to the society is ninety-nine years from the 30th of July, 1852.

In reducing into practice the object set forth in its first statute, the society has already had to subject its terms to several modifications. Adopting fifty years as the term of the repayment, the society began by announcing 5 per cent. as the gross annuity to be paid by the borrower during the fifty years. It is to be presumed that at so

low a rate the applications became unmanageable. A rate of 5-44 per cent. was then announced. In a short time the rate was again raised to 5.65 per cent.; and by a fourth alteration it was fixed at 5.95 per cent. for the fifty years.

"The obligations foncières described in the third statute require some explanation, and that explanation will be best obtained by a statement of the measures actually adopted by the society in this division of its operations. The society then has issued its obligations, or bonds, or debentures for sums of 40l., 207., and 47.,—that is, for sums of 1000, 500, and 100 francs. These obligations bear 3 per cent. per annum, but are repayable according to certain lottery drawings at the rate of 481., 241., and 47. 16s.; that is, are repayable at uncertain times, but at a premium of 20 per cent.

The lottery drawings take place four times a year-in March, June, September, and December. A very ingenious system of numbers is employed, and the 40%. bond first drawn carries away a prize of 4000l. over and above the 487. at which it is repayable. The second bond drawn is entitled to a prize of 2000l., the third to 1600l., and so on in descending sums, to the fourteenth number drawn. The prizes attached to the numbers 7 to 14 are 2004 each; and contrivances are employed for allowing the bonds of 201. and 41. to have an equal chance of obtaining rateable prizes. In 1853 and 1854 the sum paid for the crédit foncier, for these lottery prizes, was not less than 48,000l. in each year. In 1855 it was 32,000l.

The intention of this lottery element is to draw deposits to the crédit foncier faster than they would be obtained by the mere offer of an interest of 5 per cent. per annum. Instead of paying 5 per cent., the society pays 3 per cent., and distributes the further 2 per cent. as lottery prizes to be drawn for four times a year, adjusting, it is to be presumed, the number of bonds to be paid off at each drawing to the repayments of capital under its advances; and providing the premiums of 20 per cent. on the obligations, by keeping the funds in hand, on account of the sinking funds, at an amount considerably beyond the total of the obligations to be redeemed.

'Of the ingenuity of the scheme there can be no question; neither can there be any question that by introducing the element of gambling into the sober business of receiving money on deposit; by placing the amount of the deposit notes so low (47.) that the humblest classes will be those most largely affected by the chances of sudden fortune held out to them; and by surrounding a simple matter of lending and borrowing with combinations fit only for the hazard-table; the crédit foncier, as introduced into France in 1852, will not fail to be a source of vast evil instead of a means of good.' (Tooke, Vol. vi. p. 103.)

In spite, however, of these questionable incentives to speculation, the crédit foncier of France has not been as successful as its promoters anticipated; and it has not either lowered the current rate of interest on landed security, or diminished the heavy mortgage debt of that country.

Those who object to increased facilities for borrowing money on the security of land, on the ground that these facilities will be resorted to by persons for undesirable objects, must recollect that such persons will generally have their wants gratified, no matter at what cost. In England we see it illustrated in the great world of fashion every day. Under the improved system of the Continent, borrowers would every year pay back a portion of the sum so borrowed, and the debt contracted for extravagant purposes would in the course of time be extinguished. Under our unenlightened system, on the contrary, a debt is seldom paid off, except by the sale of the estate, by the extra prudence of succeeding generations, or by an intermarriage with the commercial classes. Thus the English system of placing these difficulties in the way of borrowing on this best of all securities, does not prevent a class from borrowing for bad purposes; but on the contrary, it does prevent another class from borrowing for the most useful and legitimate purpose of all, the improvement of landed estates.

We now wish to ask the important question,-whether this system, so universal on the Continent, could not be advantageously applied to this country?

One difficulty at once meets us; we have practically no registration of deeds or estates established; but this, the most formidable of all difficulties, might, in the absence of a general register, be got over by a special investigation of title by the society, and subsequent register of each person who had raised money on his estate. A company, with a permanent staff of competent legal advisers, might easily, at a fixed scale of charges, investigate these titles. All the other business, of lending money, could be carried on in the same way as it is already done on the Continent. Freehold land societies have already proved how they can, in the simplest possible manner, get over that great obstacle, the expense which the law has placed in the way of transferring small parcels of land. They make, as it were, a registration of their own on the original purchase; the title is most carefully investigated; and that being once done, a large number of small capitalists are enabled to invest their savings in land at comparatively no expense. A short printed form of conveyance is all the title they require. For the purposes of mortgaging, companies could be formed, either, as we have seen on the Continent, solely consisting of proprietors, who club together as money borrowers, or of capitalists, who unite for the purpose of lending money to the proprietors. Such companies would in the course of time, were no other system of registration adopted, by inducing a number

of mortgagees to partake of the benefits offered, form a most important and extensive register of titles. It would very possibly be a great advantage to a proprietor in any subsequent transaction with his estate, to show that it has been thus registered.

It appears to us, however, that no plan for effectually facilitating mortgages on land can be devised without a general register of all landed property. Such a register exists in other civilised countries of Europe, and the fact of our not having one ourselves is a disgrace to our legislature. Indeed, the class of persons who have hitherto successfully resisted all attempts to introduce this system, is precisely that class which would eventually be most benefited by its adoption.

We will add that a sound system of landed credit, based on the continental plan, but carefully disconnected from the German tendency to create inconvertible bank-notes, and the French scheme for lottery premiums, might be productive of incalculable social improvements. All persons connected with landed property, from the owners down to the humblest labourer employed upon it, would reap the benefit of a well-advised system of this nature. Not only would there be a demand for additional labour, but the additional capital employed on the soil would, beyond all question, produce additional supplies of food. By thus promoting the prosperity of all classes, we should contribute to the general independence of the nation,

an object which a wise and good government is bound in every sense to promote, and which it would give us at all times unfeigned pleasure to facilitate by every means that may be

open to us.

ART. VI.-1. The Lives of the Chief Justices of England, from the Norman Conquest till the Death of Lord Tenterden. By JOHN Lord CAMPBELL, LL.D., F.R.S.E., Author of The Lives of the Lord Chancellors of England.' In Three Volumes. Vol. III. London: 1857.

2. The Judges of England, with Sketches of their Lives, and Miscellaneous Notices connected with the Courts at Westminster, from the Time of the Conquest (1066—1485). By EDWARD FOSs, F.S.A. Four Volumes. London: 1848-51. 3. The Lives of Twelve Eminent Judges of the last and of the present Century. By WILLIAM C. TOWNSHEND, Esq., M.A., Recorder of Macclesfield. In Two Volumes. 1846.

4. Lives of Eminent English Judges of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. By W. N. WELSBY, Esq., M.A., Recorder of Chester. One Volume.

1846.

THE HE lawyers who reflect most lustre on their profession are rarely those who obtain its largest emoluments, or arrive at its highest dignities by an exclusive devotion to its technicalities, at the risk of narrowing their minds and provoking a pitying or derisive smile from their more discursive contemporaries. Its character has been most elevated by those who have been statesmen, orators, or authors, as well as pleaders and judges who have shown that, although law is proverbially a jealous mistress, her favour is not necessarily forfeited by the worship of the Muses,-at all events, of the gravest and most respectable of the sisterhood; and who have established a reputation for science, literature, or the higher order of eloquence, in addition to one for learning, diligence, and integrity. Conspicuous amongst these stands Lord Campbell. Although sympathy with popular feelings, or eagerness for popular applause, has occasionally hurried him into irregularities of demeanour and expression not quite in keeping with the dignity of his office, his administration of justice has been almost uniformly distinguished by firmness, mildness, and impartiality. Although his judgments may not form an epoch in English jurisprudence, like those of Mansfield or Stowell, they are not more remarkable for soundness than for sagacity and good sense qualities especially indicated by the manner in which, without disturbing the landmarks of the law, time-honoured decisions are accommodated to modern uses and to new social or commercial relations.

There can hardly be a better test of the merit of a Chief Justice than the opinion entertained of him in Westminster Hall; and few of his predecessors have managed to attract a greater amount of respect and regard from both Bench and Bar than the present wearer of the dearly prized and fondly commemorated collar of SS.* The public are indebted to him for many valuable measures of law reform. His career as a politician has been consistent and every way respectable; and his forensic speeches (revised and republished by himself in a separate volume) may perhaps be more advantageously studied as models by the students of our practical and business-like gene

*The gold chain or collar prescriptively worn by the Chief Justice of England. It is mentioned more than fifty times in the course of Lord Campbell's three volumes.

VOL. CVI. NO. CCXVI.

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